My favorite software and apps I use as a wedding photographer

As someone who always has had serious FOMO, you can say I’ve been around the block when it comes to my business. I want to try it all and make sure I have the best of the best and I also DON’T like when people rep something ( #influencers), and I end up trying something and it sucks.

I’ve made a list of my favorite software and apps that I use as a wedding photographer and I’ll even include a few other tips of other things I’ve tried. The most important tip: Find what works for you!

If you’re a beginner starting out, you may not need software this extensive. You might also just want to start out with the best of the best. There are many things to consider when choosing what platforms will be best for you and your business.

Booking Clients & Admin

Dubsado – For booking clients with contracts, payments and questionnaires.

Dubsado is hands down my favorite CRM! You already know I never just try one software. I previously used Tave for years and before that, 17 Hats. Each one was good for what it was in my business and just as times have changed and the CRM’s get better and better (and prettier.)

I feel like my business has THRIVED since fully setting up Dubsado. It makes my life so easy to automate, run an amazing business, it’s beautiful and it’s so perfect for keeping everything I need for weddings in one place.

I love that I can send my pricing guide, my contract and their invoice in one swoop. I set up automizations so my work flow is triggered and starts from the moment they send me an inury on my website.

Sign up for 20% off your first month or year with this link!

Website Platform

Showit – My favorite website builder for photographers

Showit has made it so easy to build out a high-end website without design or coding experience. My biggest thing is ease of use. I am NOT a designer, but you better believe a pretty website is a MUST for me. Along with SEO capabilities and a good user experience.

Showit checked all those boxes for me. While I have considered a custom WordPress website as my site grows (for even better SEO and speed), the value of having Showit for customer service and to support me with any tech questions is invaluable. After my website went down a few times, I realized that I couldn’t keep up with dealing with IT issues on my own.

I would pay for Showit over and over and over.

Sign up your first month free with this link!

Gallery Delivery + Print Sales

Pic-time – My Photo delivery software with a print store and custom automatizations

As a former Pixieset user, I’ve loved having Pic-time and I’ll never look back! I will say, I think Pixieset has really stepped it up with lots of features that Pic-time has, but after all these years, Pic-time still wins for me.

It’s allowed me to offer high-end products through high-end labs, but automated which makes the process easy and streamlined. The clients can even design their own albums and the options just really make your experience a more luxury option.

Sign up your first month free with this link!

Location & Session Planning Tools

OnX – How I look up if the location is private or public

OnX is one of my favorite apps I’ve found for location scouting! It’s orignally a hunting app, but many of the features work great for photography! I love using the land boundary feature to figure out if the land I want to use is public lands or private. From there I can reach out to see if I need a permit for that area.

Sign up for OnX here!

Unscripted – My favorite phone app to plan out poses and a shot list for sessions

Unscipted is one of my favorite apps for my phone and I love to have it close by during a session. They have all sorts of fun photo prompts and poses for your sessions. I also love the lighting feature to look up when sunset and blue hour are for my shoot.

Google Earth – How I ‘location scout’ from my computer

I love looking my locations up on Google Earth so I can see exactly where the sun will be during our planned time.

Be sure to download the desktop version to be able to see the sunset times.

Editing tools

Lightroom – How I edit and cull my photos on my desktop, phone and iPad

I couldn’t imagine editing any other way! Lightroom is what I’ve edited with since the beginning. I use Lightroom Classic on my desktop and Lightroom mobile synced with my desktop for any time I’m on the go. I also cull on Lightroom and love that it’s a one-stop shop for my images. I pair that with any advanced editing work with Photoshop.

I have considered using Capture One as my editing becomes more technical/advanced, but it also feels like an Apple VS. Android situation. I love how streamlined everything is with Lightroom.

Sign up for Lightroom here!

Retouchup.com – For outsourcing Photoshop work like headswaps or sunglasses removal

Honestly outsourcing to Retouchup.com has been my biggest flex of my career. I can do basic photoshopping, but these people are PROS at what they do. Instead of stressing about head swaps or removing someone, I just send it off to Retouchup.

I don’t get Photoshop requests often, but after being in business for a while, I still have clients come to me with their photos for requests. Instead of saying I can’t remove a person, or change someone’s clothing, I can now say yes, send it off, and have it back within 48 hours.

Imagen AI – My favorite AI editing tool for fast a fast photo editing workflow

Ah, the day and age where robots can edit your photos. Honestly, I love it Imagen for sending my photos off to be delivered. Anything to help my editing process. While it’s still been a learning curve and not always perfect, it’s been a saving grace for speeding up my delivery process. It’s only continued to get better with more added features.

I typically use it for editing wedding days as portrait sessions are much easier to control the light and editing a wedding is a little more all over the place.

Sign up to get 1500 edits for free with this link!

Album Design

Smart Albums – My favorite software for designing photo albums

Album design and proofing. Also another favorite software! I started using SmartAlbums and SmartSlides in 2018. I think this is just a great way to elevate your business and experience, but not necessarily needed if you’re just starting out. Their online cloud for sending drafts to clients has been HEAVEN. The clients can make comments and even select the pictures, see final edits. I guess you can still use Google Docs, but meh.

Edited to add 2022: I still love Pixellu for Albums, but Pic-time has been stepping up their game in their features and now offers album designing and proofing within your account. I’ve figured out a new system for this and I’m really loving it!

I’m still designing within SmartAlbums because Pic-Time album design lacks design features, but I love how everything integrates together to make workflows simpler.

Marketing & Design

Tailwind – For bulk scheduling out my Pinterest pins

I love using Tailwind to schedule out my Pinterest pins. Using Pinterest has been something I’ve been testing out and so far the only way I’ve been able to stay on top of it is using Tailwind.

Canva Pro – For designing projects, marketing tools, Pinterest pins

Nothing fancy or advanced, but so easy to use and has a little bit of everything for a project. I use Canva for a variety of projects in my business. I found that the basic version of Canva wasn’t enough, but have loved having the pro version.

Education & creative classes

Skillshare – My favorite online education platform for learning a new craft or working on a fun project

Honestly Skillshare is my favorite little subscription and I love pulling it up when I’m in a creative slump. I’ll take anything from a watercolor class to a Procreate class.

Sign up for a free month of Skillshare with this link!

Find what works for you

Whether you’re a beginner photographer or an experienced pro, be sure to find what works for you. We all have different requirements so be sure to shop around for what feels like the best fit. Hopefully this sparks you with some fun new ideas for your photography business.

Have more photography questions? Ask them in our Facebook group: How the hell – Photography 101